On Wed, 27 Aug 2003, Ben Elgin wrote:
> Also, Phil will be chiming in with brief descriptions for all this 
> mish-mosh sometime soon.

And, that's my cue.

Regular series:
 - Last Exile           (pretty airship action, odd goings-on)
 - Brother Dear Brother (old-school bitch-fest throw-down)
 - Macross 7            (listen to my song, dammit! [final season!])

Ben pegged each of these fairly well (yes, including Mac7) but I'll try to 
provide a bit more enlightenment.

Last Exile is one of the latest series out from Studio Gonzo.  It's the 
saga of a guy, a girl, their flying machine, and their attempts to both 
work as couriers and stay alive in a steampunk world that is routinely at 
war.  This in and of itself would be plenty to make it stand out from the 
current crop of shows, but when you throw in the ultra-badass steampunk 
Captain Harlock character, that's when things really kick into high gear.  
We'll be watching all 26 episodes over the course of the next year.

Brother, Dear Brother (Oniisama E) has more bitch per second than anything 
you could possibly imagine.  Our heroine Nanako is a new student at a 
prestigious all-girl's high school with a twist: the school is dominated 
by an elite Sorority, with fierce competition to be accepted into its 
ranks.  Guess who gets drafted in the first episode?  Cue 39 episodes of 
intense melodrama, tragic romance, savage cruelty, odd friendships, drug 
abuse, and, occasionally, torture with flower arranging implements.  
This early 90s TV show is based on the manga by Ryoko "Rose of 
Versailles" Ikeda and beautifully animated and designed by the 
Dezaki/Sugino team that gave the world the almighty Aim for the Ace!, the 
second half of Rose of Versailles, and an excellent adaptation of Osamu 
Tezuka's Blackjack; while it's not quite old-school, it certainly has a 
lot of old-school style, and is positively lovely to behold.  While this 
is not going to be a show for everyone, I guarantee that those of you who 
get into BDB will absolutely love it.

Finally, we'll be finishing up the last 1/3 of the infamous Macross 7.  
For those of you who aren't already fans of Robotech or Macross Plus, the 
Macross series is about two things: nifty jet planes that can transform 
into giant robots and the power of pop music.  No, seriously.  Macross 7 
takes both of these concepts to extremes that occasionally cross over into 
camp, then keep on going into a realm of incredible ass-kicking.  I'll be 
providing a brief recap at the first meeting, but in the meantime I can 
say that it's about using the sheer power of rock 'n roll to defeat alien 
bad guys.  No, seriously.  (I find myself using that phrase a lot to 
describe Mac7...)  Once you embrace the cheese, you'll find that Macross 7 
has wonderful characters, a (mostly) great soundtrack, incredible amounts 
of charm and energy and, in short, rocks the freakin' house.  Trust us.

Sep  2 The Animatrix (movie)

Do I need do explain this?  Yeah, that's what I thought.

Sep  9 Macross Zero 1
       Azumanga Daioh #?
       Yawara 1

Above, I described some of the traditional cheese factor that occurs in 
Macross.  However, sometimes the cheese level is higher than others; I'm 
sure many of you have seen Macross Plus, which is lovely and quite serious 
- at least until it falls apart at the end.  Macross Zero is decidedly in 
the Plus cateogry.  It's a five(?) part OVA series that has recently been 
released in Japan that acts as a prequel to the original Macross TV 
series.  It's also drop dead gorgeous, particularly the in-cockpit 
transformation sequence in episode 1, which Neil Nadelman likes to 
describe as "mecha porn".  It also stars ROY FOKKER, KING OF MEN~!, which 
is all you really need to know.

Azumanga Daioh is a bizzare, slice-of-life anime about a gaggle of 
high-school girls and their daily adventures.  This description doesn't 
begin to do it justice, but if you watch five minutes of any episode 
you'll understand exactly what the show is about - a loose sequence of 
segments based on four-panel gag comics.  The end result is generally 
hysterical, with the occasional heart warming moments thrown in before 
lurching back into complete insanity.  Absolutely everyone loves Azumanga 
- and those who don't are going to find themselves stuffed into a penguin 
suit if they don't change their evil ways.

You can't really do Yawara justice without using it's full title: Yawara, 
A Fashionable Judo Girl.  Our heroine is determined to be an ordinary high 
school girl.  Her grandfather is determined that she become the women's 
judo champion of the world.  Fortunatly for us, Grandpa seems to be 
winning, and Yawara finds herself locked in competition in the midst of 
light-hearted comedy about high school life, cute guys, and queeny judo 
champion wanna-bes.  The animation has a nice, clean late-80s/early-90s 
style and is tremendous fun.  As a trivia note, some of you may recall 
Tamura Ryoko, who won the silver in Judo at the '92 and '96 games, and 
finally won the gold in 2000.  The press immediately nicknamed her 
"Yawara-chan" based on the anime - which itself ends each episode with a 
short animated clip counting down how many days there are until Barcelona.  
Life, art, you know the rest.

Sep 23 Fist of the North Star 1

Ah, Fist of the North Star.  Hokuto no Ken has been around in a variety of 
incarnations over the years, the latest being an OVA series that (if I 
remember correctly) re-tells the saga of a beefy hero doing battle against 
even beefier opponents in a post-apocolyptic wasteland.  In this case, the 
bad guys are recruited straight out of The Road Warrior and a new twist 
has been added to the series - now, when Kenshiro uses his kung-fu to 
make the bad guys' heads explode, you get to see individual bits of brain 
thrown in.  Yes, it's a tad bit violent, in a particualrly campy sort of 
way.  Now, say it along with me, everyone:  WATATATATATATATATATATATATATA~!

Oct  7 The Cat Returns (Ghibli movie)

You can see the words "Ghibli movie" and stop reading right there, secure 
in the knowledge that The Cat Returns is a must-see.  On the off chance 
you need more information, I can say that it's about a teenage girl and 
her adventures in the feline world, starring The Baron from Whisper of the 
Heart.  It's directed by Hiroyuki Morita rather than Miyazaki or Takahata, 
but don't let that stop you - this is going to be one hell of a movie, 
beautifully animated and featuring the feline Roy Fokker.  Or something.

Oct 14 New Astro Boy 1
       Captain Herlock 1
       Kino Tabi 1

Next stop, rampaging nostalgia - and I mean that in the very best possible 
way.  First off, the venerable Astro Boy (who recently celebrated the day 
of his creation, as well as the 50th anniversary of his first manga 
appearance) has a brand new TV show - and, let me tell you, it is swank 
as all hell.  Vivid colors, high adventure, and a lavish animation budget 
make for a terrific update of a light-hearted classic, chock full o' retro 
style and almost Asimovian robot adventures.

Next, a terrific update of a rather less light-hearted classic, with the 
new Captain Herlock OVA series.  As much as I love ol' Matsumoto Reiji, I 
have to say that he's fallen victim to the brain eater in recent years.  
Fortunatly, Rin Taro (Metropolis, Galaxy Express, X) stepped in and 
offered to continue where the original 70s Harlock TV series left off, but 
taking things in his own directly.  With Matsumoto's blessing, he's done 
just that and the results are fabulous.  Captain Harlock kicks all manner 
of ass, even with an "e" in his name, the animation quality is top notch, 
and the mood (brooding space opera) is fantastic.  Roy Fokker may be the 
King of Men, but Captain Harlock is God, and don't you forget it.

Meanwhile, I'm afraid I don't have anything particuarly coherant to say 
about Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World, except that it's a series of 
short stories about the travels of a boy and his sentient motorbike and 
looks to be absolutely lovely.  It's directed by Ryutaro "Lain, 
Haibane Renmei" Nakamura, so I expect it to be pretty freakin' great.

Nov  4 Lupin: First Contact (movie)

One of the latest in a long line of Lupin movies, this time we go back to 
the very beginning of the Lupin Gang and see how they formed their 
larcenous partnership - as well as how Zenigata first started chasing 
them all over the world.  Word has it that this is easily the best Lupin 
TV movie in ages, so with luck it'll be a bit more coherant than Return of 
Pycal...especially since we'll have subtitles this time.  No, really, I 
promise...

Nov 11 Texhnolyze 1
       GadGuard 1
       Magical Tutu 1

Texhnolyze is the latest mind-fuck from the folks who brought you Serial 
Experiments Lain.  I'll warn you now that the first episode is completely 
incoherant, complete with bizzare imagery, fragments of conversation and a 
rather muted color pallete.  However, with the second episode you can see 
that this is going somewhere...though, who knows exactly where that may 
be.  Either way, you can expect striking visuals, interesting science 
fiction, and a ton of art school style.

GadGuard is stylish in a completely different way, that involves bright 
colors, a wild and happening future, and a funky soundtrack.  Our hero is 
a skate punk who works part-time as a courier when he's not trying 
to survive high school life.  One day, he's given a package to carry that 
turns out to contain a strange cube that is somehow related to the 
mysterious, somewhat hodge-podge robots that are popping up around 
the city.  Yeah, you can see where it's going, but GadGuard pulls off the 
cliche with such amazing style that it's easy to forgive.

Tim's going to have to jump in to describe Princess Tutu, a combination 
magical girl/ballet show about a junior high girl's quest to recover the 
literal shards of a prince's broken heart.  It's slick, it's stylish, it's 
shoujo to the friggin' max, and looks to be terrific.  Tim, you want to 
jump in here?

Dec  2 Tree of Palme (movie)

Finally, we wrap up the semester with a striking, vividly animated and 
somewhat trippy variation on Pinocchio.  Words won't do this justice; take 
my word for it that it's visulaly spectacular and you want to see it.  
'Nuff said.

Phil